{"id":4327,"date":"2013-11-11T17:24:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2014-04-16T01:42:18","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T01:42:18","slug":"my-birthday-week-on-spetses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4327","title":{"rendered":"My Birthday Week on Spetses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Costas<\/a>

Costas and I – My Birthday Night in Delfinia<\/p><\/div>\n

Last Tuesday, 5 November 2013, was my birthday.\u00a0 Costas sent me shopping for a new bikini … came home with a gorgeous one, however, with such a busy social calendar last week, I never managed to christen it and now the weather has changed, that will almost certainly have to wait until next year – nevermind.<\/p>\n

That evening we walked down to Nektarios\u00a0in the Old Harbour, arriving in time for the fireworks display around 1930 hours … very impressive it was too.\u00a0 Together with a couple of dozen friends, we were to have dinner there, just as we had done the previous two years.\u00a0 Ray had pre-arranged the food selection, with more than enough to go around and Costas\u00a0had ordered my birthday cake.\u00a0 This year it was a bitter chocolate cake … really yummy!\u00a0 On our walk back to the Dapia, Anna and Penny came along on their quads, picking us up and taking us\u00a0the rest of the way to Delfinia.\u00a0 About a dozen of us\u00a0met up there for drinkies … the music was great, the company all in high spirits – a very enjoyable night was had by all.<\/p>\n

Wednesday saw the arrival of thunderstorms with pelting wind and rain.\u00a0 In the evening Costas\u00a0went to play Pool with mates at Delfinia\u00a0… I went along too and kept company with Heather and Marilyn, until Marilyn went home and Heather and I\u00a0played our own few games.\u00a0 On Thursday\u00a0I spent a quiet day at home, doing this and that and making ready for a short trip away to Poros\u00a0with Ray and Heather on Friday.\u00a0 We met at Filippos\u00a0before taking a water taxi late morning\u00a0across to Kosta.\u00a0\u00a0A short walk to where Ray’s black Jaguar (the Beast) is parked and on our way, driving north to Galatas, from where the ferries make the very short journey over to the island of Poros.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0weather was glorious, as it would be for our two days away … how lucky were we.\u00a0 Also lucky to find a car parking space very near to our hotel, the 7 Brothers, which Ray had booked the previous day.\u00a0\u00a0For Costas\u00a0and I, Room 21, on the 2nd floor, with a balcony and sea\u00a0views.\u00a0 Quickly unpacked then met up for lunch at Rota, a taverna\u00a0nearby, where we had the most delicious lunch of Chefs Salad, Dolmadakia\u00a0(stuffed vine leaves), Kolokithikeftedes\u00a0(courgette fritters) and fresh Kalamari\u00a0… all washed down with a lovely white wine.\u00a0 I will remember this meal for a very long time.\u00a0 From there we took a stroll through the streets of Poros, slowly making our way up to the Clock Tower, back down to\u00a0Memories Cafe on the\u00a0waterfront\u00a0for drinks then back to\u00a0our hotel for a siesta, meeting up again at 2030 hours.\u00a0 Dinner was at Dimitris … Ray and Heather knew of this place from previous visits, tucked away some 500m up the hill.\u00a0 Specializing in meats, we all decided on a filet steak\u00a0as our main and no one was disappointed.\u00a0 Returned to Memories where we had been in the afternoon, warm enough to sit outside although Costas did spend a spell inside at the bar,\u00a0requesting they play a selection of his favourite Greek music to which he could sing along in his usual monotone … needless to say, he was very happy.\u00a0 When Memories wanted to close, we walked and found another bar open\u00a0close to our hotel, however, we did not stay long, returning\u00a0to 7 Brothers for a great night’s sleep.<\/p>\n

Blessed with another beautiful day on Saturday, we began by having an English breakfast in a nearby cafe, before getting in the car to explore a little of the island, including a visit to\u00a0the Temple of Poseidon.\u00a0 Then it was back to Memories before taking the short\u00a0ferry ride to the mainland, from where we were to make our way a little further north to the mountain village of Taktikoupoli.\u00a0 Costas’ grandfather came from this village and Costas\u00a0had not been there since he was about nine.\u00a0 It was mid afternoon – siesta time and not a soul to been seen, however, I noticed a kind of general store which once had also been a taverna\u00a0and there inside were an elderly couple … the lady was feeding the obviously unwell\u00a0man his midday meal.\u00a0 Costas\u00a0got talking to her, explaining who he was and why we were there.\u00a0 Eventually she said “Kai Ego Emai\u00a0Gikas” (and me, I am Gikas\u00a0– Costas’ surname) … Chrissoula’s\u00a0grandfather and Costas’ grandfather were brothers!<\/p>\n

As a young boy, Costas’ parents would send him from Athens to this village for holidays when they were both too busy with his father’s restaurant to keep an eye on him.\u00a0 The last time\u00a0Costas\u00a0had been in the village, his uncle had tied a rope around him to lower Costas\u00a0into a well to rescue a chicken that had strayed.\u00a0 The rescue attempt was successful and Costas\u00a0went back to Athens feeling very pleased with himself.\u00a0 There he relayed the story to his mum, she was not impressed by it and Costas\u00a0was never to return to Taktikoupoli for holidays.<\/p>\n

We arrived back in Kosta\u00a0just in time to catch the 1700 hours sailing of the Katerina Star ferry over to Spetses.\u00a0 Time for a much-needed\u00a0siesta before meeting Ray and Heather, together with Jerry and Marilyn for dinner\u00a0at Hadji’s\u00a0in the Old Harbour … Saturday night\u00a0and they had advertised live Greek\u00a0music which was to be a guy singing, accompanied by a\u00a0lady playing piano.\u00a0 On the way home we stopped at Throubi down the\u00a0road for drinks.\u00a0 Walking back along the seafront, once again we had to say to each\u00a0other,\u00a0how blessed we are to be living in this paradise.<\/p>\n

On Sunday,\u00a0it was lunch in the garden for 8 at Ray and Heather’s house … a roasted leg of New Zealand lamb, plus Marie had made a Pavlova\u00a0and decorated it with kiwifruit – two tastes from my other home.\u00a0 Now it is Monday evening, the rain has returned and is forecast to hang around for the next 10 days.\u00a0 Not to worry,\u00a0after all, it is nearing mid November and I was fortunate to have a number of days at the beach during my first two weeks\u00a0back on the island … I have no complaints at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Tuesday, 5 November 2013, was my birthday.\u00a0 Costas sent me shopping for a new bikini … came home with a gorgeous one, however, with such a busy social calendar last week, I never managed to christen it and now the weather has changed, that will almost certainly have to wait until next year – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4684,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions\/4684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}